Maja Daruwala

Maja Daruwala "is currently executive director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a New Delhi-based nongovernmental organization that promotes the practical realization of human rights in the Commonwealth states, particularly through police and promoting the right to information. Ms. Daruwala was until 2005 also the chair of the London-based Minority Rights Group International and is founder and Chair of the People's Watch Tamil Nadu, a human rights advocacy and monitoring organization based in South India. She sits on several governing boards and advisory councils, including the Justice Initiative at the New York-based Open Society Institute and the New Delhi-based Voluntary Action Network, an umbrella organization aimed at strengthening civil society in India. From 1992 to 1996 Ms. Daruwala was a program officer for human rights, women's rights, and social justice at the Ford Foundation in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. A barrister by training, Ms. Daruwala, has conceptualized and edited reports for the Commonwealth Heads of Government on poverty and the status of the right to information and is currently editing one on police accountability. She continues to produce a body of journalistic work, including a television documentary on prisoners and syndicated articles on rights and governance issues in the region."

She is a director of the International Women's Health Coalition.